Nobody has time to listen to all the music that is released, so there are publications that filter the flood before it reaches the mainstream. At one time, New Musical Express and Rolling Stone magazine defined what was cool. Today, it's Pitchfork.

Like earlier taste-setters, Pitchfork operates in the grey area where bands appeal to more than the few thousand fans of specialist sites, but haven't been picked up by MTV and other purveyors of commodity musical experiences. The current buzz is around albums such as Visiter (Dodos), Street Horrrsing (Fuck Buttons), Hercules and Love Affair, and Vampire Weekend. It's not Britney Spears, R.E.M. or the Foo Fighters, and the site hasn't even reviewed Linkin Park's albums. Pitchfork is more about what might take off tomorrow than yesterday's news.

Which is not to say Pitchfork discriminates against popular beat combos. For example, Lily Allen got a sympathetic review ("Alright, Still isn't anything else but a fantastic success") and a score of 8.3 out of 10. Even Justin Timberlake's noxious FutureSex/LoveSounds ("revelling in melodramatic gestures is among the album's attractions; even the handful of glutinous ballads are admirable for their lack of restraint or proportion") was rated an impressive 8.1.

However, some acts have achieved fame for scoring 0.0, including Kiss, Sonic Youth, The Flaming Lips and Travis Morrison. And that's not the worst. Wikipedia notes that for Australian band Jet's second album, Shine On, "Pitchfork Media posted a totally anomalous review containing only a video clip of a chimpanzee urinating in its own mouth". So it goes.

Five a day

Pitchfork was founded as an online fanzine by 19-year-old Ryan Schreiber in 1995, and started daily updates the following year. It has grown organically to the point where it now publishes about five album reviews a day (written by a handful of staff plus freelance reviewers), news stories and interviews. Last month it started Pitchfork.tv as a channel for videos, Pitchfork Live performances, and its own interviews and reports. It is also involved in music festivals.

Schreiber is now in his 30s, and his taste has become broader. This has helped bring in new readers, and according to Alexa.com, the site now has around 300,000 visitors a day. Many people must come across it — as I did — through its popular lists. These include the Top 50 Albums of 2007 (and earlier years), The 200 Greatest Songs of the 1960s, 100 Awesome Music Videos, and the 20 Worst Album Covers of 2007. It's now doing reader polls as well.

Today, Pitchfork is more polished, more professional and more responsible than it used to be, and deservedly more popular. It is even making money. But it's also less idiosyncratic and has lost some of the roughness that helped give it a cutting edge. The same kind of thing happens to indie bands when they hit the mainstream.

Whether Pitchfork will turn into a rich dinosaur like Rolling Stone remains to be seen, but it looks like staying sharp for at least a few more years.